jon@maui.cs.ucla.edu (12/02/89)
A guide book not to be overlooked is the Macmillan Field Guide. It is not intended to be comprehensive, but is very handy and organized by color and size of the birds. I find it very useful in quickly identifying the common shorebirds for example. The plates are very nice for reasons I haven't put my finger on. May be they are a little toned down. At least the Hooded Oriole looks more like the color I've seen. Consumer Reports just ran a test on binoculars. The big news was that the Leitz were outshown by some fairly inexpensive Nikons as well as some others. The test was resolution of eye charts at distance. I'm sure the results wer correct, but I'm not sure that is the only relevant test for what we do, and I suspect the weight of the binoculars determined how still they could be held, and had a lot to do with the results. I'm suprised there hasn't been more discussion of this here. There is a booklet on S. Cal. birding: A Birder's Guide to Souther California James A. Lane distributed by L & P PRESS P.O. Box 21604 Denver, CO 80221 I got my copy a "The Nature Company". I can try to list the Pasedena spots for you (Greg?), if you like. The Malibu Lagoon on the coast is a good spot if you can get over there. Jon. Gingerich